Jamie Foxx shares new details on mystery illness: ‘I was gone for 20 days’
The Oscar winner says his illness began with a "bad headache."
Jamie Foxx is opening up about the illness that led him to be hospitalized for several weeks last April.
In a video shared on X (Twitter) on Monday, the 56-year-old actor is shown talking to a group of people about his hospitalization at a cafe in downtown Phoenix.
“Look, April 11 last year. Bad headache. I asked my boy for an Advil,” Foxx says in the video, posted by The Art of Dialogue. Foxx then snaps his fingers and says, “I was gone for 20 days. I don’t remember anything.”
The actor then talks about his sister, Deidra Dixon, and daughter, Corinne Foxx, sharing that the pair were the first to take him to the doctor in Atlanta.
“They gave me a cortisone shot,” Foxx says about the medical care he received. According to the Mayo Clinic, a cortisone injection is used to “relieve pain, swelling and irritation.”
Foxx continues explaining the circumstances of his illness, pointing at his head and sharing that “the next doctor said something’s going on up there.”
“I won’t say it on camera,” the “Ray actor” says, drawing laughs from the crowd of listeners. “But it was…” he finishes, trailing off as he shrugs his shoulders.
Foxx previously took to Instagram to thank his sister for her support during his health scare. “Without you I would not be here,” he wrote at the time. “Had you not made the decisions that you made I would’ve lost my life.”
“I love you forever and ever happy birthday sis,” he concluded on the August 2023 post that also commemorated her birthday.
In addition to thanking his sister, Foxx also thanked the medical staff who cared for him during his illness in a separate post. The Oscar winner shared his gratitude for the care he received in a video posted to Instagram in July 2023.
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“So today, and to God, to a lot of great medical people, I’m able to leave you this video. I cannot tell you how great it feels to have your family kick in in such a way,” Foxx said, adding, “And y’all know they kept it airtight, didn’t let nothing out. They protected me and that’s what I hope that everyone could have and moments like these.
“I went through something that I thought I would never ever go through,” Foxx shared. “I know a lot of people were waiting and you know wanting to hear updates but to be honest with you I just didn’t want you to see me like that man.”
In February, Foxx revealed during his AAFCA’s producers award acceptance speech that he will share the full details of his hospitalization in an upcoming stand-up comedy special, according to People.
“Everybody wants to know what happened and I’m gonna tell you what happened but I got to do it in my way,” he said at the time. “Going to get on somebody’s stage somewhere near you. I got some jokes, and a story to tell….”
